Associate Professor

Utah Valley University

Orem, UT

Current - 2023

Assistant Professor

Utah Valley University

Orem, UT

2023 - 2017

Private Consulting

Forensic Bioinformatics

Various

Current - 2020

Director of Environmental Biology

GeoDataCrawler Research Institute

Athens, GA

2021 - 2018

Postdoctoral Associate

University of Hawai`i at Manoa

Honolulu, HI

2017 - 2015

University of Arkansas

Ph.D. in Biology

Fayetteville, AR

2015

Missouri State University

B.S. in Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics

Springfield, MO

2010

PI: Faculty-Mentored Experiences for Improving Undergraduate Biology Student Outcomes

$972,287

NSF (DUE – 1833880)

2023 - 2018

College of Science Dean’s Award of Excellence for Scholarship

$2,750

Utah Valley University

2022

College of Science Dean’s Award of Excellence for Scholarship

$2,750

Utah Valley University

2020

Presidential Fellowship for Faculty Scholarship

$8,000

Utah Valley University

2019

PI: SEED: Engaging undergraduates in advanced research

$30,000

Utah Valley University

2018 - 2017

PI: New methods to survey fungal endophytes in endangered cacti

$2,550

Capitol Reef National Park

2018

Co-PI: Assessing Undergraduate Research Teams at an Open Enrollment Institution

$29,327

Utah Valley University

2018

Translational Mycology Postdoctoral Award

Plant conservation from a microbial perspective

Mycological Society of America

2016

Co-PI: Restoration of endangered plants by manipulating foliar fungal symbionts

$40,500

Oahu Army Natural Resources Program

2015

Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Travel Award

$750

Washington, D.C.

2014

PI: The Importance of microbial interactions to soil carbon cycling on a warming planet

$12,570

NSF (OISE-1308856) / JSPS (SP01363)

2013

Student Mentee Funding Awards

122 mentees funded from a variety of internal and external programs

N/A

Current - 2017

Designed a new Bioinformatics Degree Program

Experienced with univ. curriculum processes and accreditation

N/A

N/A

R for Biologists

Intro to R language and data science, including dataviz & modeling (designed and taught)

N/A

N/A

Bioinformatics Data Skills

Unix/Bash and HPC use for bioinformatics (designed and taught)

N/A

N/A

Mycology

Research-based mycology (designed and taught)

N/A

N/A

Microbiome Boot Camp

Advanced R, numerical ecology, community ecology, scientific writing (designed and taught)

N/A

N/A

Bioinformatics Capstone

Project-based (designed and taught)

N/A

N/A

Organismal Biology

Intro biology II (taught)

N/A

N/A

Mentorship

N/A

N/A

N/A

• Graduate committee member (4 MS, 3 PhD)
• Undergrad research mentor (38 students)
• Lab alumni

Societies & Service

N/A

N/A

N/A

• Editor of Mycologia
• Education Committee - Mycological Society of America
• IUCN Species Survival Group - Slime Moulds Specialist
• NSF GK-12 Teaching Fellow (2011-2012)

Collaborations

N/A

N/A

N/A

• National Univ. of Singapore
• Univ. of Hawaii at Manoa
• Stazione Anton Dorhn
• Washington State Univ.
• SUNY Syracuse
• PNNL
• SoftCell, Inc.
• Young Living, Inc.
• Oxford Univ.
• Univ. of Arkansas

Peer review

N/A

N/A

N/A

• NSF panel reviewer
• NSF GRFP
• BARD US-Israel Agr. Dev. Fund
• Journals:
  • Soil Biol. and Biochem. (Distinguished), PeerJ, Pedobiologia (Distinguished), Oikos, ISME Journal, Fungal Ecology (Distinguished), Molecular ecology, Ecology and Evolution, American Fern Journal, New, Phytologist, Phytobiomes

The core mangrove microbiome reveals shared taxa potentially involved in nutrient cycling and promoting host survival.

Wainwright BJ, Millar T, Bowen L, Semon L, Hickman KJE, Lee JN, Yeo ZY, & Zahn G. Environmental Microbiome 10.1186/s40793-023-00499-5.

N/A

2023

Inclusion of database outgroups reduces false positives in fungal metabarcoding taxonomic assignments.

Rawson C, & Zahn G. Mycologia 10.1080/00275514.2023.2206931

N/A

2023

Long-term soil fungal community recovery after fire is impacted by climate change.

McGee S, Tidwell A, Riggs E, Veltkamp H, & Zahn G. Western North American Naturalist

N/A

2022

Marker Genes (16S and ITS) Protocol for Plant Microbiome Analyses.

Zahn G. BIO-PROTOCOL 10.21769/BioProtoc.4395

N/A

2022

Global patterns in endemicity and vulnerability of soil fungi.

Tedersoo L, Mikryukov V, Zizka A, Bahram M, Hagh-Doust N, Anslan S, Prylutskyi O, Delgado-Baquerizo M, Maestre FT, … Abarenkov K. Global Change Biology 10.1111/gcb.16398

N/A

2022

The Global Soil Mycobiome consortium dataset for boosting fungal diversity research.

Tedersoo L, Mikryukov V, Anslan S, Bahram M, Khalid AN, Corrales A, Agan A, Vasco-Palacios A-M, Saitta A, … Abarenkov K. Fungal Diversity 10.1007/s13225-021-00493-7

N/A

2021

Examination of host-taxon, environment, and distance effects on leaf fungal endophytes in the dominant woody genus, Metrosideros, on O’ahu.

Sur GL, Zahn G, & Stacy EA. Fungal Ecology 10.1016/j.funeco.2021.101093

N/A

2021

Biogeographic structure of fungal communities in seagrass Halophilia ovalis across the Malay Peninsula.

Quek ZBR, Zahn G, Lee NLY, Ooi JLS, Lee JN, Huang D, & Wainwright BJ. Environmental Microbiology Reports 10.1111/1758-2229.13003

N/A

2021

Restoration of the mycobiome of the endangered Hawaiian mint Phyllostegia kaalaensis increases its resistance to a common powdery mildew.

Egan CP, Koko JH, Muir CD, Zahn G, Swift SOI, Amend AS, & Hynson NA. Fungal Ecology 10.1016/j.funeco.2021.101070

N/A

2021

Hawaiian Fungal Amplicon Sequence Variants Reveal Otherwise Hidden Biogeography.

Tipton L, Zahn GL, Darcy JL, Amend AS, & Hynson NA. Microbial Ecology 10.1007/s00248-021-01730-x

N/A

2021

Essential oil, insect, and microbe relationships in Juniperus osteosperma (Cupressaceae) trees killed by wildfire.

Wilson T, Poulson A, Packer C, Carlson R, Davis R, Dey M, Owen N, Smalley S, Dodge R, … Stevens M. Phytologia

N/A

2021

Host age is not a consistent predictor of microbial diversity in the coral Porites lutea.

Wainwright BJ, Zahn GL, Afiq-Rosli L, Tanzil JTI, & Huang D. Scientific Reports 10.1038/s41598-020-71117-4

N/A

2020

Fungal communities living within leaves of native Hawaiian dicots are structured by landscape-scale variables as well as by host plants.

Darcy JL, Swift SOI, Cobian GM, Zahn GL, Perry BA, & Amend AS. Molecular Ecology 10.1111/mec.15544

N/A

2020

Fungal aerobiota are not affected by time nor environment over a 13-y time series at the Mauna Loa Observatory.

Zahn G, Tipton L, Datlof E, Kivlin SN, Sheridan P, Amend AS, & Hynson NA. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 10.1073/pnas.1907414116

N/A

2019

Foliar fungi alter reproductive timing and allocation in Arabidopsis under normal and water-stressed conditions.

Zahn G, & Amend AS. Fungal Ecology 10.1016/j.funeco.2019.04.002

N/A

2019

Characterization of fungal biodiversity and communities associated with the reef macroalga Sargassum ilicifolium reveals fungal community differentiation according to geographic locality and algal structure.

Wainwright BJ, Bauman AG, Zahn GL, Todd PA, & Huang D. Marine Biodiversity 10.1007/s12526-019-00992-6

N/A

2019

Characterisation of coral-associated bacterial communities in an urbanised marine environment shows strong divergence over small geographic scales.

Wainwright BJ, Afiq-Rosli L, Zahn GL, & Huang D. Coral Reefs 10.1007/s00338-019-01837-1

N/A

2019

Seagrass-associated fungal communities show distance decay of similarity that has implications for seagrass management and restoration.

Wainwright BJ, Zahn GL, Zushi J, Lee NLY, Ooi JLS, Lee JN, & Huang D. Ecology and Evolution 10.1002/ece3.5631

N/A

2019

Seagrass-associated fungal communities follow Wallace’s line, but host genotype does not structure fungal community.

Wainwright BJ, Zahn GL, Arlyza IS, & Amend AS. Journal of Biogeography 10.1111/jbi.13168

N/A

2018

Foliar microbiome transplants confer disease resistance in a critically-endangered plant.

Zahn G, & Amend AS. PeerJ 10.7717/peerj.4020

N/A

2017

Uncovering unseen fungal diversity from plant DNA banks.

Datlof EM, Amend AS, Earl K, Hayward J, Morden CW, Wade R, Zahn G, & Hynson NA. PeerJ 10.7717/peerj.3730

N/A

2017

Fungi associated with mesophotic macroalgae from the ’Au’au Channel, west Maui are differentiated by host and overlap terrestrial communities.

Wainwright BJ, Zahn GL, Spalding HL, Sherwood AR, Smith CM, & Amend AS. PeerJ 10.7717/peerj.3532

N/A

2017

The effects of amoebal bacterivory on carbon and nitrogen dynamics depend on temperature and soil structure interactions.

Zahn G, Wagai R, & Yonemura S. Soil Biology and Biochemistry

N/A

2016

Ecological distribution of protosteloid amoebae in New Zealand.

Zahn G, Stephenson SL, & Spiegel FW. PeerJ

N/A

2014

First records of Protosteloid Amoebae (Eumycetozoa) from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

De Haan M, Cocquyt C, Tice A, Zahn G, & Spiegel FW. Plant Ecology and Evolution

N/A

2014

Pil1, an eisosome organizer, plays an important role in the recruitment of synaptojanins and amphiphysins to facilitate receptor-mediated endocytosis in yeast.

Murphy ER, Boxberger J, Colvin R, Lee SJ, Zahn G, Loor F, & Kim K. European Journal of Cell Biology

N/A

2011